RUS-2016-Aerial-SPB-Peter and Paul Fortress 02

Zayachy Island ( Russian Заячий остров, literally ''Hare Island'') is an island in the

Neva River The Neva (russian: Нева́, ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it ...

in St. Petersburg,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. It is separated by the Kronverksky Strait from Petrogradsky Island to the north, to which it is connected by the Kronverksky and Ioannovsky bridges.

History

Zayachy Island was for the most part swampy, uninhabited, and unremarkable until 1703, when

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

began the construction of the

Peter and Paul fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920 ...

there, himself laying the foundation stones. Until the late 19th century, there were three canals inside the fortress, dividing the island into four parts. The canals were filled up by the late 19th century. The island is described as offering picturesque views of central St Petersburg (including the Winter Palace and Vasilyevsky Island) across the

. Zayachy Island is the site of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral where many members of the House of Romanov are buried. On July 17, 1998 the remains of Czar Nicholas II and his family were buried there, eighty years to the day after they were executed by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Massacres

During the

Red Terror The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in ...

, the island was the site of massacres of enemies of the state. Bodies were discovered during the recent building of a road linking a car park. Some estimates put the number of buried in the hundreds and potentially in the thousands.''A national museum to the victims of Stalinist repression: words not deeds?''
, opendemocracy.net Human rights charity

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

tried to convince the authorities to investigate the graves properly.

References

Islands of Saint Petersburg River islands of Russia Peter and Paul Fortress {{SaintPetersburg-geo-stub